The 20 counties are populous, averaging (mean) 325,000 people per county, to the national average of 95,000 per. They are comprised mostly of cities and the political battlegrounds that are the suburbs. Rural areas, which vote Republican throughout the country, are effectively excluded. Eleven of the 20 counties are in states that went for Kerry in '04, and four of the nine counties in states that went for Bush are in the 'swing' states of Florida and Ohio, not sure bets like Nebraska or Oklahoma (neither of which are represented).

Despite these 'odds' seeming to favor Democrats, Bush won 14 of the 20 counties, with an average advantage of 55.3%-44.0%. That includes the brutally unaffordable and anomalous (relative to the rest of the list) Marin County, which backed Kerry 73%-26%.

* The list's composition is a bit lazy, but still useful for this purpose. Forbes first eliminated most rural areas by knocking off counties with populations under 65,000, then winnowed further by requiring that at least half of per-pupil educational funding come from property taxes, thus favoring counties with high residential real estate prices. Home prices, especially relative to the surrounding area, do proxy well for the desirability of the place. 'Failing schools', 'high crime', 'poverty', and other factors that imply what isn't stated explicitly in polite company determine them. But only after this does Forbes look at SAT and ACT scores. Finally, with 51 counties remaining, it evaluates the following: Cost of living, graduation rate, standardized scores, home price, property tax rate as a percentage of median home price, percentage of homes occupied by owner, per-capita income, air quality, crime rate and commute time.